News Collider - Board Game News 14/11/2018

It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time for some tabletop gaming news. Yet again Rory has sailed the board gaming ocean and returned to port with his board game trawler, dragging a net bulging with the freshest news.

In today’s news we have some unfortunate goings on with Super Dungeon Explore’s financial situation, another Rick and Morty Game, Turtles, Twatty-hadoukans and saving the world with Catan.

We first saw this cracking Euro worker placement game at the UK Games Expo and both Steve and I loved it. It’s coming to Kickstarter on 20th November so I can finally start marking the days off my calendar until I can play it again.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: RICK AND MORTY: THE RICKSHANK RICKDEMPTION

Cryptozoic will be releasing a new stand-alone Rick and Morty game. This time the deck builder is based on the very popular season 2 episode.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW FRONTIERS

Rio Grande games have converted their award-winning game Race for the Galaxy into a board game. The original designer, Tom Lehmann (who also transferred the game to a dice-based version) came back on board to see his card game get the board and tokens it needed. The game will be up for pre-order soon from the publisher’s website for £75 – which seems perfectly reasonable *cough* *splutter*

Rumour* has it that Tom is now working on a Roll & Write version of the game now too.

*It’s a rumour I’m starting right here

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: TMNT NINJA PIZZA PARTY

No, you haven’t slipped through a time portal back to the late eighties, even though this news story looks like it should be twenty years old (yes, unfortunately, the cartoon aired over twenty years ago. I know, I feel very old all of a sudden too). IDW has teamed up with Nickelodeon to bring us the party game about serving up the perfect pizza for these half-shell heroes. The game will come with the old school artwork from the original animated show and the luxury tin.

For the astute reader, IDW are the same folks who announced last week the release of the Ghostbusters/Men In Black crossover board game, which begs the question, which of my childhood IP’s is next? Transformers? Power Rangers? Be sure to check the news next week (probably) to find out.

JUST RELEASED: TEOTITHUACAN

The week or so has been one fraught with nail-biting anticipation over the arrival of Teotihuacan for many, with rumours circulating about short shipments and some online retailers allegedly selling more than their allotment of the game. For Mr Lewis, however, the waiting and the anticipation was over early Tuesday morning.

You can read his first impressions here and no doubt we’ll be hearing about this game for some weeks, if not months to come on the podcast.

SUPER DISAPPOINTING DUNGEON

Super Dungeon from Ninja Division was launched on October 21st 2015 with an expected delivery date of December 2016. To this date, not only has the game failed to be delivered but it isn’t ready to be manufactured. This week, the publishers released a statement in response to a complaint levelled at them via Kickstarter, which explains in detail how this came about and outlines the $750,000 hole in their finances they believe is required to deliver this project.

In short, the game was a bit pants. Feedback from backers encouraged the designers and developers to revisit the design to make enhancements, which they very diligently did, stating that they would “scrap the existing rules and begin anew from scratch”. They did so for around 18 months, at which point they estimated that development was 70% complete. The publishers were beset by serious illness, followed by redundancies and pay cuts for staff in order to keep the company afloat and the project moving, very slowly forward.

At this point, Ninja Division are still to unable to secure the means to fulfil this project although a number of options are being explored, including manufacturing the game on credit. Understandably, there is a lot of frustration focused on Ninja Division from the backers and beyond.

This story, unfortunately, is a testament to the risks inherent with Kickstarter, which Ninja Division are all too quick to point out in their statement: It is not a preorder system, backers beware.

BUY CATAN. SAVE THE WORLD

Catan - Crop Trust, is a new scenario expansion for the classic board game which adds a semi-cooperative element to the game where players will need to harvest crops but also store seeds for the future. Failure to balance this new mechanic correctly can result in “mass extinction and a collapse of the food supply”.

This expansion has been created and released in conjunction with the Crop Trust, an organisation that ensures that the planet’s seed diversity is secure at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (the world’s largest seed bank). Proceeds from the game will go to funding the Crop Trust and owners will also get an almanac all about it.

BOARDGAME HALTS CITY COUNCIL MEETING

A meeting with Portland City Commissioner, Chloe Eudaly, came to a very abrupt end recently after the group of constituents she was due to meet with took issue with the game Illimat being displayed on the conference room table. They took it for a Ouija board and demanded it is removed. Eudaly didn’t like this one bit, demanded to know which one of them was wearing perfume and then stormed out of the meeting altogether.

I know this may sound like a Monty Python sketch but this really happened.

THIEVING THIEF PROMOS

Artipia Games were one of the stalls robbed at Essen Spiele this year, and as much as it is sickening and the guys at Artipia have decided to turn it around by creating a very limited set of promo cards for some of their games. This Kickstarter campaign will help the small indie company recoup some of the losses but also provide backers with a sardonic smile when they play one of those themed cards. Whether you just want to show your support or get the set of cards the Kickstarter ends Thursday 15th November - so act fast.

AFRICAN BOARDGAME CONVENTION

On Sunday 12th November the 3rd annual African Boardgaming Convention took place in Abuja, Nigeria, which saw streams of families and children gather to play board games. Organised and run by NIBCARD Games – a group of Nigeria’s premiere boardgame designers, ABCon is the largest gathering board gamers in West Africa. The organiser, Kenechukwu Ogbuagu, believes that

“[…]There are several ways key tenets of the society can be taught to citizens across all strata for the development of the society. This is because games are addictive and affect actions subconsciously.”

He was demonstrating a number of new games that focus on issues faced by Africans, with an aim to aid in learning and development across all African countries.

RANDOM FOX

Grey Fox Games (the folks currently running the Reavers of Midgard Kickstarter campaign) have a random monthly giveaway, not that the months are random, but the things that are given away. Last month it included some Hallowe’en masks, a WWE Wrestling figure, an inflatable pong set and season 1 of Pimp My Ride.

But, the real prize is the one at the end of the contest, anyone who receives a #RandomFox will be entered into the draw to win a Lestrade Game Toppers Bundle, worth over $700. To enter this competition all you have to do is send them your physical mailing address and wait for random stuff to turn up.

MILLENNIAL MONOPOLY UPSET

We all know that Monopoly is a bit shit. Well, the latest iteration of this “classic game” has caused quite a stir. Monopoly for Millennials is causing the much-maligned generation to take to social media and ask Hasbro what exactly they thought they were doing. The game differs from the original in that instead of buying property you’ll be gaining experiences, such as visiting a yoga studio, sleeping on a friends sofa, or going to a vegan bistro. The box boldly claims that millennials should “Forget real estate. You can’t afford it anyway.” Some took offence to this. I can’t understand why.

Naturally, the game is out in time for Christmas, so if you have some millennial gamer friends that you want to piss off this year, this might be a good place to start.

Turns out that a millennial is anyone born between 1980 -1994, which actually makes me a millennial, but if you ever call me a millennial to my face I swear I will kick you in the meeples #JustSayin

KICKSTARTER HIGHLIGHTS:

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice from Triton Noir (founded by former Ubisoft game designers in 2014) Not much needs to be said about this project other than it is a campaign miniatures game and if you back it before 16:59 GMT you’ll get the Ezio miniature thrown in for free.

Claustrophobia 1643 from Monolith Games launched a 10-day campaign for an update and reprint of the ‘classic’ Claustrophobia released 9 years ago. The print run was completed before the Kickstarter campaign launched and they were literally just waiting for the components to dry before beginning assembly. The print was limited to precisely 10,000 units with a strict 1 box per backer policy in place. But there is still time to get involved!

The Perfect Moment from Button Shy is a 1 - 2 player game about time travel, utilising 18 multi-use cards for you to go back and rewrite a wrong. Oh Boy! This game is fully funded and ends November 17th, so get moving.

The Necronomicon Gamebook from Officina Meningi grab some dice and a pencil and now you too can stalk the monstrosities in the streets of Kingsport. Keeping as close to the original Lovecraftian texts as possible, this wonderfully illustrated choose-your-own-adventure style book looks flippin’ ace.